I actually had a discussion about this with @IRB last week. I was annoyed I had to wait for over 20 seconds for my Windows Live Mail program to open. I always use a mail agent since I don't want my browser up all the time. It was even making less sense to me when my mail app on my phone opened instantly compared to the 30 seconds long startup time on my SSD laptop. Anyways, I have always used Hotmail, but what annoys me is that the Microsoft Account login process is slow (can take more than 10 seconds). I really do like Outlook, but I got kinda annoyed when it migrated my account there without asking to, so each time I go to hotmail.com, I get to outlook.com. Since I just got the latest *and greatest* Office pack, I'm using the Outlook program in there. Its fast and responsive and got everything I need

You have to check out Kinect Party, awesome game (more like 1-2 minute short takes) - my kids love it. It dumps you right into the game and it doesn't care if the kids walk away or others jump in on it too. Good for mindless adult fun as well!

Kinect is great for kids, but the dancing game might require a more accurate position for dancing to pass the level but Wii you can just flail the remote and do nothing :/ I'm with @ResearchVoyager on trying out Kinect Party and some of the Fun Labs as they have nice little free games in there.

It'll be a good day when we get tot he point that we don't have to encourage people to develop apps etc to help empower women and they are on an equal footing until then, keep up the excellent work.

The new Outlook is great, I've been using it for a long time (when ever the preview launched) and it is much cleaner and slicker than the old Hotmail. I've used Hotmail for over a decade now but I've mostly used client software live Outlook, Live Mail or the Windows 8 mail app which I prefer. The one thing that still needs to be brought out of the 90's is the Calendar you have on the Outlook.com site :/

Where gmail still has an advantage over outlook.com is this consistency in branding. Hotmail, msn live and now outlook branding is just confusing. Outlook is much cleaner but gmail still has more functionality and a more transparent layer of integration (like calling a phone number directly from your list of friends on the left) while outlook either doesn't offer these features or if it does, it's a whole separate page/interface. Try Calendar for example from the top drop-down.

I hate to admit it, but at one point I used Gmail as my primary. I forget exactly why I had moved away from Hotmail to Gmail, but I came back to Hotmail when the new version was in preview. I have not looked back since.

I really like the clean look and feel. It also seems to be easier to use. Even my son remarked how much he liked the improvements over the old Hotmail and how easy it is to use. Right now there are only three things I would like to add or change to Outlook.com.

I know this one is in the works, but make the Calendar match the rest of the style.

Allow us to pop the chat pane out of the window. I believe this functionality was in the old Hotmail version, and would keep multiple chats in tabs.

I am sure this one is more complicated than us users think, but allow us to IM people on GTalk.

Overall, the new Outlook is great. I enjoy it so much that I quit using a mail client.

I use Windows Live Mail right now to manage my Hotmail account (which has been migrated to Outlook.com) and two GMail accounts. I use the Hotmail account for things like my MSDN subscription, but one of the two GMail accounts is my primary one. GMail is my primary account because the UX is so much better on my Android phone than Hotmail in the messaging app.

I generally leave Live Mail open all day and I use Outlook for work. I could use Outlook for everything, but it complains if I'm not connected to the VPN to get to the Exchange server. Overall the reasons why I'm not actively using the web interface are as follows:

I've been using Outlook.com since the preview was available, as a heavy Outlook (thick client) user at work for some time now I dig where they are heading with Outlook.com service. It has an app feel to it even though it is web based. I created a Gmail account a few days ago just to see what it was like in comparison, in my opinion Gmail is confusing and old school, it feels like you are logging on to a web site to check mail. The calendar needs to get pulled over so it feels like part of Outlook.com, I know that's just a matter of time.

I use Windows Live Mail right now to manage my Hotmail account (which has been migrated to Outlook.com) and two GMail accounts. I use the Hotmail account for things like my MSDN subscription, but one of the two GMail accounts is my primary one. GMail is my primary account because the UX is so much better on my Android phone than Hotmail in the messaging app.

I generally leave Live Mail open all day and I use Outlook for work. I could use Outlook for everything, but it complains if I'm not connected to the VPN to get to the Exchange server. Overall the reasons why I'm not actively using the web interface are as follows:

Support for combined accounts is no where near as good

An Internet Explorer page is more than 2x more memory than Live Mail

The Web is not the solution to everything.

I agree with you on the phone app. I still use it as my primary on my Droid 2 Global, but that app could use some improvements. Same with the Windows 8 mail app.

Now here is a stupid newbie question for you, but one I've wondered before but never tried to look up. Does the Live Mail (including the mail app on Windows 8) store the emails locally? I wouldn't want to take up space with lots of emails and have to worry about saving them when I get a new machine.

I agree with you on the phone app. I still use it as my primary on my Droid 2 Global, but that app could use some improvements. Same with the Windows 8 mail app.

Now here is a stupid newbie question for you, but one I've wondered before but never tried to look up. Does the Live Mail (including the mail app on Windows 8) store the emails locally? I wouldn't want to take up space with lots of emails and have to worry about saving them when I get a new machine.

It stores a local copy of the folders you open/sync down via the client to keep an offline cache so you can still read those emails when you are not connected to the net. The email will still always be in the cloud (unless you delete them via the client of course) so you don't have to worry about backing them up or moving them etc.

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